This is fargin weird, ladeez and gemmun... As an old pilot, there is something here that just does not compute.
Some Marine Doofus (Marines are so dumb, their actual top commanding officer had to be the one from the Navy) anyway, SMD was flying his F-35 in a thunderstorm over a city.
So what, you say? Well, the F-35 has some downright p.ussy characteristics (unlike a Phantom, which rocked).
Unbelivably (but true) the F-35 cannot fly within 25 miles of lightning.
The engine/fuel tanks will explode because the OBIGGS (Onboard Inert Gas Generation System) won't work, and KABOOM goes the tanks.
I might humbly point out to the Marines that I have flown a dinky Spam Can (Cessna 152) -- out of necessity -- within a mile of a thunderstorm. 25 times better than a F-35.
Didja see how I said "
out of necessity"? Which type of pilot would see fifty times more "out of necessity" bad weather flying? A puddle-jumping putt-putt, or a carrier-launched combat aircraft?
And pray tell, O taxpayer: What happens when it is pitch-dark, and the carrier is in the middle of a thunderstorm, and the Marine is in his explosive hot-rod that does not work in poopy weather?
And just what in the bloody hell was this Marine Doofus' flight plan? Do they just hop in and say, "Well I gotta get another hour in for my Flight Pay minimum"?
What. What was he doing in an F-35 over a city
in a thunderstorm?
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